Community Buries Last Of 5 Slain Amish Girls

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- For the fourth time in two days, the Amish have had to bury one of their own. This time it was the funeral for the fifth young girl shot by a suicidal intruder at their one-room Lancaster County schoolhouse.;

Under a cold, steady drizzle, more than 40 horses and buggies trailed a herse and two mounted state troopers as they made their way to the cemetery with a hand-sawn wooden coffin bearing the body of 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus.

The procession took them past the home of Charles Roberts, the 32-year-old milk truck driver who took the girls hostage, tied them up and shot them, then killed himself.

Three funerals were held Thursday for the other four victims, two of whom were sisters. Police kept reporters well away as scores of horse-drawn buggies clip-clopped to a wind-swept, hilltop graveyard. Along the way, the processions passed the home of the suicide gunman.

Authorities kept the funerals private by closing roads and restricting airspace.

Black carriages carried the wooden coffins of 7-year-old Naomi Rose Ebersol, then 13-year-old Marian Fisher, then sisters Mary Liz Miller and Lena Miller, ages 8 and 7.

Meanwhile, a sixth shooting victim is reported in grave condition.

Lancaster County's coroner said that girl was released from the hospital Thursday and brought home to die. Since then, the 6-year-old victim was taken back to the hospital because she began showing signs of improvement, WGAL-TV in Lancaster reported.

"I promised the families not to talk a lot about what's happening right now," said Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council. "I will say there is a lot of talk of miracles and answer to prayers. And one of the families said to me, 'There's always something to thank God for.'"

The victim's family has not said much. But they have asked for prayers. They said they appreciate all of the prayers and well wishes and think that they are making a difference.

Some Other Girls Show Signs Of Improvement

Two of the hospitalized girls are communicating with their families and are able to tell them about what happened in the schoolhouse.

"We are hearing some real tales of courage," said Rita Rhoads, a friend of the victims' families. "I don't want to go into detail about what they actually said. I feel the family needs some privacy with some of these comments. But they really showed amazing courage with the immediacy of being shot."

Rhoads also said the Fisher family tried to get their daughter out of the hospital just for the day so she could attend her sister's funeral.

A 13-year-old at Penn State Hershey Medical Center was last listed in serious condition. The hospital is no longer giving condition updates at the family's request.

The other three girls are in intensive care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. An 8-year-old and 10-year-old were listed in critical condition.

"They face both physical and emotional healing that may take weeks and months and years. And so they ask people to continue to pray for them, and continue to keep them in your thoughts and support," said Gavin Karr, of Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania.

The 12-year-old at Children's Hospital is in serious condition.